COSTS OF DISPOSITION

Although assets are rarely sold on the very day of marital breakdown, they will eventually be sold even if it is only a deemed disposition on death. Capital assets owned at the date of marriage breakdown may have inherent contingent capital gains (or even recapture of depreciation deducted for accounting and tax purposes over the years) that will be triggered by their eventual sale. There are commissions relating to the sale of some assets, such as the matrimonial home. The courts have indicated that it is the onus of the owner of a taxable asset to establish when it is likely to be disposed of and, thus, when the costs of disposition will be incurred. A calculation is done using current taxation rates (since any others would be entirely speculative), and a present value calculation back to the date of marital breakdown is performed.